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Constantinople - Pope Constantine II
by Josef Cullinane | 1702298 Overview Pope Constantine II is the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is physically imposing, short-tempered and contemptuous of anyone who even slightly disappoints him. He was put in place as the Pope in the days following the Re-Enchantment, after the previous Pope mysteriously disappeared following a speech wishing for prosperity and living alongside the magical beings. He sees the Papacy as a stepping stone toward his true goal, which is to turn himself into a God. His movements seem mysteriously precise and calculated for a human and his voice has an odd quality to is that many people find unnerving. Appearance Constantine is over two metres tall, broad-shouldered and extremely dense and heavy for his size due to his mostly mechanical construction. He wears a full suit of armour which resembles 13 Century Crusader dress, complete with a helmet featuring the iconic mitre as a stylised headpiece. He carries a unique two-handed flanged mace and conceals several pistols underneath his cloak. Despite his size and weight, he is also extremely fast, capable of running at upwards of 30 mph. Personality Pope Constantine II is a cold, calculating, egotistical man with little regard for those around him. He will take the lives of his subordinates for minor infractions, destroy entire settlements and do anything else he can to ensure that he grows ever closer to his goal. He believes that the ends justify any imaginable means, up to and including using the entire city of Constantinople as the basis for an experiment. His extreme egotism is shown in the fact that he renamed Istanbul as one of its old names, which also happened to be his own namesake. He hates all mythological creatures in the world and believes Gifted to be second class citizens, forcing them to live in rotting slums full of monsters. Despite this, he is more than willing to use magic in order to help reach his goal. Cyborg Constantine is 156 years of age, having artificially lengthened his lifespan by gradually replacing parts of his body with machinery; very little of the original man remains. He is never seen outside of his armour because he and the armour are one and the same. His body is powered by a mana battery, which draws in magical energy from the air and converts it into electricity. Before this, he had very little mobility and had to be plugged into a small diesel generator at all times in order to stay alive. His body is made of tungsten, titanium and other extremely strong metals to ensure its durability, with the armour itself being made out of AR500 steel, which is commonly used in bulletproof vests and is capable of stopping a reasonably powerful rifle cartridge with little issue. His voice is synthetically produced; a lower fidelity speaker was used due to its durability, meaning that his voice has a tinny, static-like quality to it, such as when someone speaks through an old microphone. Constantine has no moral issue with having shed his human flesh as he did not believe himself to have ever been a human in the first place, rather than a deity trapped in a human form.